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Claire Fraser
)Age as of the end of Written in My Own Heart's Blood. |Deathdate= |Marital= Married (second husband) |Alias= *Claire Beauchamp *Claire Randall *Sassenach (Gaelic) *Sorcha (Gaelic) *La Dame Blanche *White Witch *Lady Jane *Mrs. Malcolm *White Raven *"the Healer" |Title= Lady Broch Tuarach (formerly) |hidep= |Gender= Female |Height= 5'6" |Hair= Curly light brown |Eyes= Light brown/gold |Skin= Very fair |hidef= |Family Members= *Henry Beauchamp (father) † *Julia Moriston (mother) † *Quentin Lambert Beauchamp (uncle/guardian) † *Jamie Fraser (husband, m. 1743) *Faith Fraser (daughter) † *Brianna MacKenzie (daughter) *Roger MacKenzie (son-in-law) *Jeremiah MacKenzie (grandson) *Amanda MacKenzie (granddaughter) *Fergus Fraser (adopted son) *Marsali MacKimmie Fraser (daughter-in-law) *Frank Randall (husband, m. 1937) † *Jenny Murray (sister-in-law) *Ian Murray (brother-in-law) † |hidea= |Occupation= Physician |Clan= *Beauchamp *Fraser (by marriage) |Nationality= English |hiden = |Books = book1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 |hidet = |Actor = *Caitriona Balfe *Elizabeth Bowie (as Young Claire) |Seasons = 1 • 2 }} Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser is a nurse, later a doctor, and a time-traveler who has lived both in the 20th century and the 18th century. While on a second honeymoon in Scotland with her husband, Frank Randall, Claire accidentally travels two hundred years into the past, where she meets and eventually marries Jamie Fraser. As the primary (and sole first-person) narrator of the Outlander series, Claire is compassionate but medically ruthless, with a quick tongue that tends to get her into trouble. Personal History Claire Beauchamp was born to Julia and Henry Beauchamp on October 20, 1918. She was baptized as a Catholic. Her parents died in a car accident when she was only five, and Claire was adopted by her uncle, Quentin Lambert Beauchamp, an archaeologist and historian whose work took him all over the world. He attempted to enroll her at an English boarding school, but she stubbornly refused to attend. :"Faced with the necessity of prying my chubby fingers off the car's door handle and dragging me by the heels up the steps of the school, Uncle Lamb, who hated personal conflict of any kind, had sighed in exasperation, then finally shrugged and tossed his better judgment out the window along with my newly purchased round straw boater." ::— Claire, Outlander (Chapter One) Claire consequently spent her childhood traveling the world with her uncle while he worked, becoming accustomed to fairly primitive conditions. Over the years, Claire recalls various places she had lived, including and Egypt. She later claims that her first kiss was at the age of eight, in Egypt with the dragoman's nine-year-old son. Claire met Frank Randall, a historian, when he came to consult her uncle about his work. They were married in 1937,In 1945, Claire narrates that she and Frank have been married for nearly eight years. In Drums of Autumn, Brianna looks at her parents' wedding photos and recalls that Claire was eighteen when she married Frank. Claire, born October 20, 1918, was 18 through most of 1937. and spent a brief two-day honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands. During the early years of their marriage, Claire continued her nomadic life with Frank, who was junior faculty at the time. They lived in a succession of hired flats until the outbreak of in Europe, at which point both Claire and Frank committed themselves to the war effort – Frank as an officer with and Claire as a combat nurse. They each served for the duration of the war, and thus spent very little time together during those years. Claire began her nurses training at Pembroke Hospital, and was later stationed at a field hospital in Amiens, France, where she worked for about two years. By 1943 she was a senior nurse, supervising junior nurses and orderlies. She was transferred to a field station at Caen before the end of the war. Claire recalls that the field hospital had been shelled three times while she was there, and her experience of treating the wounded men stays with her, even many years later. Once the war was over, Claire and Frank reunited and decided to go on a second honeymoon in Scotland to reestablish their marriage in 1945.In the American printing of Outlander, Claire goes through the stones in 1945. The date was changed in the UK printing (published as Cross Stitch) to 1946, which the editor thought was a more reasonable time for Claire and Frank to make their post-war trip to the Highlands. For more about this discrepancy, see The Outlandish Companion. They stayed at Mrs. Baird's bed-and-breakfast in Inverness, a city in the Scottish Highlands situated near an ancient stone circle called Craigh na Dun. Events of the Novels Claire Fraser/Outlander|Outlander Claire Fraser/Dragonfly in Amber|Dragonfly in Amber Claire Fraser/Voyager|Voyager Claire Fraser/Drums of Autumn|Drums of Autumn Claire Fraser/The Fiery Cross|The Fiery Cross Claire Fraser/A Breath of Snow and Ashes|A Breath of Snow and Ashes Claire Fraser/An Echo in the Bone|An Echo in the Bone Claire Fraser/Written in My Own Heart's Blood|Written in My Own Heart's Blood Personality By any standard, Claire is a woman ahead of her own time in 1945, and an outright anomaly in the 18th century. Her unusual upbringing, together with her six years as an army combat nurse, shaped Claire into a thoroughly independent woman undaunted by rough living conditions and physical danger. She is an eminently sensible person, though her considerable personal freedom from a young age shows through in her stubborn aversion to taking orders without questioning them. When it comes to practicing medicine, Claire takes charge and keeps a cool head in dire situations. In the 20th century, she stands out as a woman in medical school, and in the 18th she draws the ire of fellow surgeons, an exclusively male profession at the time. Physical Appearance Claire's defining physical features include her extremely curly hair and golden-colored eyes. She often remarks to herself (and other characters observe it of her as well) that her hair, when unfettered by pins or ribbons, is wildly large and curly, and frequently breaks free of its bonds when she is agitated or engaged in physical activity. At the beginning of the series, she observes that her hair is light brown, though later in life it takes on lighter streaks of gold and silver. By her early sixties, Claire has a broad streak of white hair at her temple. Her eyes are variously described as amber, golden, golden-brown, the color of well-aged sherry or whisky, and compared to those of a hawk or leopard. Claire's Uncle Lamb told her that her mother's eyes had been the same color. She has a naturally pale complexion, often described as so white as to be translucent, though her skin tans to a soft light brown after long periods of time spent outdoors. She is of an average modern height at five feet, six inches, though she is taller than most women (and not a few men) of the 18th century. Name * Claire is the French form of Clara, which itself is the feminine form of the Late Latin name Clarus which meant "clear, bright, famous".Behind the Name: Claire – Accessed 19 April 2015Behind the Name: Clara – Accessed 19 April 2015 * Elizabeth derives from Ελισαβετ (Elisabet), the Greek form of the Hebrew name אֱלִישֶׁבַע ('Elisheva') meaning "my God is an oath" or perhaps "my God is abundance".Behind the Name: Elizabeth – Accessed 19 April 2015 * Beauchamp '''(English (or Norman origin) and French) is a habitational name from any of several places in France, for example in Manche and Somme, that are named with Old French beu, bel ‘fair’, ‘lovely’ + champ(s) ‘field’, ‘plain’. In English the surname is generally pronounced "Beecham".Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press, via Ancestry.com * '''Fraser may be derived from Fredarius, Fresel or Freseau. Another suggestion is that the Frasers were a tribe in , whose badge was a strawberry plant.Way, George and Squire, Romily. Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia. (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, The ). Published in 1994. Pages 142 - 143. Trivia *Jamie has two main endearments by which he addresses Claire: **''Sassenach'', which is a Gaelic term used to refer to English people, or outsiders. It is often used as a derogatory term, but Jamie calls Claire affectionately by it. **''Mo nighean donn,'' which means "my brown-haired lass" in the Gaelic. *In Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber, Jamie calls Claire mo duinne, however this is not quite the right Gaelic translation for "my brown-haired lass". When Diana Gabaldon wrote and published the first two novels in the early 1990s, she had very limited access to Gaelic language resources, but by the time she was writing Voyager, a native speaker had helpfully corrected her usage, and mo nighean donn should be considered the correct form of the endearment for the entire series. *Her favorite exclamation is "Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!", said over fifty times in the novels. *As of the latest novel in the series, Claire is a six-times grandmother and published physician. TV Series Irish actress Caitriona Balfe portrays Claire Randall in the STARZ Outlander television series. Gallery OUT 114-20140828-ND 0089 6x4-1024x683.jpg Outlander-Season-1B Claire-Randall-Caitriona-Balfe-1024x683.jpg OUT 113-20140703-ND 0187 6x4.jpg Ols1 112-5.jpg OUT 111-20140502-ND 0195 6x4.jpg Ols1 111-(1).png Ols1 111.png 3.jpg 11.jpg 6.jpg OUT 109-20140311-EM 0463 6x4.jpg OUT 109-20140303-EM 0426 6x4.jpg OUT_108-20140430-ND_0740_900x506.jpg OUT 108-20140501-ND 0612 900x506.jpg OUT 108-20140509-ND 0344 900x506.jpg 9.jpg 11.jpg 22.jpg OUT 107-20140523-EM 0121 900x506.jpg OUT 106-20140409-ND 0748 900x506.jpg OUT 106-20140414-ND 0141 900x506.jpg OUT 106-20140424-ND 0224 900x506.jpg OUT 105-20140401-EM 0649 900x506.jpg OUT 105-20140321-ND 0180 900x506.jpg OUT-104-2.jpg OUT-104-3.jpg OUT-104-4.jpg OUT-103 20131120 ND-0732 900x506.jpg OUT-103 20131120 ND-0074. 900x506.jpg OUT 103-20131202-ND 0112 900x506.jpg OUT-102 20131106 EM-1710 900x506.jpg Outlanderstill-claire2.jpg OUT-101 20131010 EM-0901 900x506.jpg OUT-101 20131105 EM-0210 900x506.jpg Caitriona+Balfe+as+Claire+Randall+in+the+STARZ+Original+Series+O.jpg References Category:Characters Category:Main Characters Category:18th century characters Category:20th century characters Category:Fraser Clan Category:Characters in Dragonfly in Amber Category:Characters in Voyager Category:Characters in Drums of Autumn Category:Characters in The Fiery Cross Category:Characters in A Breath of Snow and Ashes Category:Characters in An Echo in the Bone Category:Characters in Outlander (novel) Category:Characters in Written in My Own Heart's Blood Category:Time Travelers Category:Characters in Season 1 Category:Characters in Season 2 Category:English Characters